Europe Chain Hotels Market Review | November 2005 | TRI Hospitality Consulting

Paris proves immune to riots but Dublin suffers

Paris was one of the strongest performing cities in November in the sample of 10 European cities in TRI Hospitality Consulting’s Europe HotStats survey.

The French capital put in a double digit increase in room revenue per available room to record an increase of 12.8 per cent for November compared to the same month last year.

The only cities ahead of Paris were Berlin, with a 14.1 per cent increase, and Milan, with an 18.0 per cent increase. But taking the first 11 months of 2005 shows Paris in front with a 6.6 per cent increase, year-on-year.

“Paris has joined London in showing that, provided a city has a strong offer, it is capable of shrugging off difficult short-term circumstances,” said Jonathan Langston, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

Dublin put in the poorest performance in the month with revpar down 28.2 per cent for November. It is also by far the worst for the year-to-date with a decrease of 18.9 per cent. No other city in the survey had a double digit decrease for the first 11 months of the year, with only Munich and Hamburg showing declines.

The main reason for Dublin’s dramatic decline in November was an 11.3 percentage point decline in occupancy. Occupancy was also down 3.3 percentage points for the year-to-date but Munich has suffered a worse drop in occupancy, seeing it down 4.2 percentage points.

The best performer occupancy wise during November was Milan, with a huge 15.4 percentage point increase. Strangely, hoteliers in the city pushed down rates at the same time with a 6.6 per cent decline, and therefore taking much of the benefit of the greater occupancy away.

Despite Dublin’s decline in occupancy for the year-to-date, it remains the strongest performer in the sample. Conversely, Milan’s strong showing in occupancy still leaves it as one of the weakest in the sample.

“There have been some marked fluctuations in performance but this has been largely due to cities either coming off close to historic highs or picking-up after near record lows,” said Langston.

London leads rate growth

There has been strong growth in rate during the first 11 months in London, the best in the sample. Amsterdam, Berlin and Vienna were also strong performers on rate. In addition to Dublin, negative rate growth was seen at hotels in Milan, Munich and Hamburg.

Notable occupancy growth occurred for the year-to-date in both Milan and Paris with both Munich and Dublin performing poorly.

Statistics collected by TourMIS, a body financially supported by the Austrian tourism board and the European Travel Commission, show that the level of demand for hotel beds is continuing to increase at most cities across Europe.

Paris was a strong performer in the TourMIS survey of bednight demand for the months January to September, showing a year-on-year increase of 8.2 per cent. Hamburg, despite suffering a poor performance in its business hotels in the HotStats survey, saw a healthy 10.0 per cent increase in demand for all types of acommodation in the TourMIS study.